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"Wacky" is the appropriate word to describe the early rendering of a proposed 55 (or 57) story tower that would lord over Pershing Square if built. A part of a project by downtown developer Jeffrey Fish, the tower would add more than 100 units of luxury condos to downtown's rapidly growing real estate market, commercial space and maybe even a hotel, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The tower would also be home to Los Angeles' first over-the-side skyscraper swimming pools. Though pools like this have been built all over the world in China, the UAE, Australia and even Dallas, Los Angeles' dis-affinity for radical skyscraper design means any high-rise pools here are hidden away inside the building itself, or on its rooftop. If built, the new tower would let those few Angelenos wealthy enough to afford a spot inside a chance to gaze down upon the rest of us walking along 50 stories below, all from the luxury of a glass-bottomed pool. That being said, the building portrayed in the (very preliminary) rendering does look very cool. We can only imagine what sort of night-lighting scheme the architects are planning.
If built, the edifice would sit at the intersection of 5th and Hill streets, diagonal to Pershing Square and across the street from a subway portal. An unused piece of "L" shaped land would provide the tower's base (where those paper Giraffes used to live), and the building would rise adjacent to Fish's preeminent downtown development, the restored Pershing Square Building (home of Perch restaurant)
As Curbed points out, the two iterations of the building were proposed to the City of Los Angeles in filings made last week. One alternative is 55 stories tall, and includes 100 condos, 200 hotel rooms and 27,500 square-feet of commercial space. The other is 57 stories tall, and features 142 condos with 25,000 square-feet of commercial space.
It's worth noting that this is building is still in the very preliminary stages of development. Fish estimates the building is a few years out, though he's "very committed" to seeing construction through to the end.
Anyway, the building looks like a cool addition to the city's burgeoning skyline. Our big question, of course, is what happens during an earthquake? Would thousands of gallons of pool water slosh down upon the (likely panicked) walkers of downtown?
